Newspaper Shoe Challenge

Today’s Challenge: Using only newspaper, 24 inches of tape, and one scissors, you and your partner need to create one shoe that fits either you or your partner’s foot. The shoe must be able to come on and off without falling apart.

 

Teamwork Rubric Focus (Communication):

 

My goal for communication today within my team is to listen and share my ideas.

 

My Individual Plan I will make a flip-flop shoe and on the bottom put tape so that the shoe has a grip on the floor. 

 

Why I think my plan will be successful: It is an easy plan and I have done a project like this one.

 

Our Group’s Plan We will make a regular shoe

 

We chose this plan because it hopefully should work.

 

Possible challenges that may come up during construction we might get into a fight.

 

Each partner will be responsible for JB: Model DY: Designer and Worker

 

After the Build

 

 

Our design worked well because it was nice and comfortable!

 

This activity was challenging because we ran out of tape and time.

 

This activity was comfortable because we did really well and had fun!

 

I met my teamwork communication goal by both of us shared our ideas!

 

A strength of my partnership was we worked super well together and didn’t fight!

 

An area of growth for my partnership is We needed to think of a plan.

 

For our next challenge, my new teamwork communication goal for myself is to let my other partner’s do some work!

 

End of NA Unit Reflection

How do you think you have grown as a learner since the beginning of this unit?

Now I write more sentences and know about NA.

What topic this unit has been most interesting to you? Explain. Christopher Columbus because I didn’t know much about him and I thought he was a good guy until now.

 

Think about our school values.

  • What has this unit made you wonder? Christopher Columbus and why he did all that bad stuff.
  • How has this unit made you feel empathy? The NA and what we did to them to hurt them.
  • How has this unit strengthened your feeling of Tikkun Olam? We should help the NA and give them reparations.

 

What can we (your teachers) change to make this unit better in the future? Tell us more even about the NA and deeper into Christopher Columbus.

Reflecting on ETC

How have you changed as a group member this year in ETC? I now like to take photos and now I like to take everyone’s ideas and make them into 1 idea. Also, I like to speak up more than I used too. And I like to hear my peer’s ideas.

 

How has working in ETC made you a better student in other classes? (Social Studies, ELA, Jewish Studies, Hebrew, Math, Science) Now when I am in a group I participate more and help everyone. And I listen to my peer’s ideas. 

 

Thinking about my blog posts, I have improved by… Now I write long sentences than small sentences like I used to. And I participate more too.

 

In the future, I plan to improve my blog posts by… Being more descriptive than just writing something that doesn’t make sense. And write more sentences.

Native American Experience

Some Native Americans do not like the term Native American. Explain why they reject this name. Because they do not like America because America was supposed to be there land and they would have had a different name.

 

One person in the BBC Video said that living in poverty does not mean they are poor. What do you think he meant by that? They still have land and a house so they are not poor because they have the basics of life.

 

Some Native Americans approve of the team name Redskins. What is their reason for approving this name while others do not? Because some NA could think the name is not very offensive compared to others who think it is offensive.

 

In the CNN segment, there was a story told about a woman who used to approve of the name Redskins, and now does not. What changed? Why does she no longer approve of the name? Because now it is more offensive and can hurt kids feelings and make them have a bad reputation for American’s.

How can non-Native people help others learn about Native Americans current issues? What can we do to help? We can go to a reservation and interview people there and see what they think about all of this.

Cup Holder Challenge

Today’s Challenge: Using only provided materials ( 6 straws, 1 piece of paper, a piece of tinfoil, 12 inches of masking tape, 2 paperclips, 2 pieces of string, 1 envelope, and 2 pipe cleaners)  create a structure that holds two cups as high as possible and as far apart as possible.

 

Teamwork Rubric Focus:

 

My goal for participation today while working in my group is I want to speak up more so that my group can hear my ideas more.

 

My Individual Plan I think that I could tape together a paper tube with straws (as the base). The straws would be taped to the ground. I would make 2 of those and put the cup upside down on the top of the paper tubes. Also, I could make in the paper and put the string in the cups.

 

Why I think my plan will be successful: I could spread as far as I want because they aren’t connected. 

 

My Groups Plan 

 

We chose this plan because it was kinda all our ideas.

 

Possible challenges that may come up during construction we might have some tape wasted.

 

Each group member will be responsible for tape, construction, and cups and cutting the tape.

 

After the Build

 

Our design worked well because it didn’t.

 

This activity was challenging because we messed up.

 

I met my participation goal by helping and sharing my ideas.

 

A strength of my team was we all worked really well together and didn’t fight.

 

An area of growth for my team is we needed to try harder.

 

For our next challenge, my new participation goal for myself is to look at other people’s ideas.

Plant Observations in Organic and Inorganic Material

Throughout our science unit, we have been focusing on an organic and inorganic material. As an experiment, we decided to compare the growth of a bean seed in organic material vs inorganic material. We developed hypotheses and predicted what type of material our bean seeds would grow best in. Over the past three weeks, we have observed our bean seeds once or twice a week to see how they are changing and growing. Below are my observations I noticed today.

Here is a picture of my bean seed growing inorganic material: 

Here is a picture of my bean seed growing in organic material: 

My observations about my bean plant that is growing in organic material are it is growing super well and healthy.

My observations about my bean plant that is growing in an inorganic material are it is sprouting but very unhealthy.

Conclusion: I think the plants grew better in organic material because of these reasons: It is growing really fast, healthy, and big.

Native Americans Mascots

Should Native American people be given something in return for these mascots? Why? Depends, some of the mascots like Black Hawk was in favor of the N/A.

 

Do you think it would be important to you to change these mascots if a mascot was made of you? Explain.  Depends, if they were paying me then yes. But if they just made me into a mascot without asking no.

 

Should these teams and the government give Native Americans reparations? Why? Yes, because some of them insult Native American. 

Solving word problems with Fractions

Today in math we continued to work on solving word problems with fractions. When solving word problems we need to draw a visual to represent the problem, write an equation(s) with a variable to represent the unknown amount, show our work, and write the answer with a label. Shown below is what this looks like based on the following word problem:

“Rex is making bread. He combines 1 3/4 cups of white flour and 2 1/3 cups of wheat flour. He adds rye flour to make a total of 5 cups. How much rye flour does he add?” 11/12.

1) Here is a picture of my visual:

2) Here is a picture of my equation(s) with a variable to represent the unknown amount:

3) Here is a picture of the work I did to solve the problem:

4) My answer and label are… 11/12 cups of rye bread.

5) Why does drawing a visual help when solving a word problem?
Because then you have it in your brain.
6) How are you feeling about solving word problems with fractions? Is there anything that you still need help with or need to work on further? Sometimes I miss steps accedently.

7) We have our Unit 1 test this Friday. Is there anything that you do not understand or want more help with? Sometimes I get confused with the problems.

8) What will you do throughout this week so you are prepared for the test this Friday? I will practice so that I will get a A.

Revisiting My Puzzle Piece

 

In August, I thought the following about myself as a learner: I thought I needed to be very quiet or else I would get distracted except for with music.

 

Today, I would add the following to my puzzle piece is I would add I don’t get very distracted with people talking because it doesn’t distract me anymore because I can focus on my work better. 

 

Today, I would tweak or modify my puzzle piece by changing it saying “no distractions” with instead “distractions don’t bother me anymore” because I can focus with people talking.

 

I think I’ve already grown this year as a learner because I can focus on my work a lot easier than before.

 

Thinking about working in teams in ETC, my classmates can best support my learning needs by helping me focus on work a lot more.

Columbus debate reflection

Explain how your group worked together before the debate (during research). Did you work well together? We worked very well together and had fun.

 

Explain how your group worked together during the debate. Did you work well together? We all worked really well together and did really well.

 

What can you do differently next time? Why will this help you and your group improve? We could discuss more before the debate. 

 

Explain how this debate influenced your opinion on Columbus. I think we should celebrate Columbus because he is part of history!